Author: Riaglar
Genre: logical
Playtime: ~45 minutes
This entry was posted by one of more experienced users, so there’s no surprise that he did it very well. I may be little biased as I like this type of games, but for me it fully deserves five star score. Of course I’ve completed all the levels. It took me about 45 minutes. You can see the most difficult one in the middle of the screen.
I’m wondering how these levels were designed. I expect that there is some reversed algorithm. At least without +/- features…
Hi Pawel,
thanks for the nice words. I like that you actually told me how long it took you, because that is difficult to estimate when you know all the solutions.
On the design: for each level, I started out with a list of elements I wanted it to contain, as well as a path length I wanted to achieve. I then placed the goals and/or starts either at random or in little rooms, depending on the elements I wanted. Some paths were made backwards, some forwards. In any case I added each block in a way it became a new stop for the path. The reuse of blocks for multiple paths mostly just happened and I liked it and kept it. The rooms where always created forward. For the first levels, I made sure that the paths were obvious, there was always one direction leading back to the outer wall and one leading closer to the target. Later I deliberately introduced “traps” – possibilities to go into the wrong direction or wrong hints when trying to decode the path backwards. I also added useless blocks or blocks that are just in the way of a shortcut. I mostly thought of +/- as “intermediate goals” in this process, unless I wanted them to have a special meaning for the level. I also aimed to have only obviously irreversible actions create dead ends, i.e. slotting a shape in or using a + when there is no -.
The last level was an attempt to force the player to stack the shapes into the empty space, I am not particularly proud of it, once you understand it, it is more chore than puzzle.
Also I think your screenshots contain serious hints 😉
Many thanks for your comment 🙂 I admire your contribution. It was hard planning task that might be unnoticed. I think you made it very well. In your game dead ends make more fun (or actually forseeing them) – they’re not irritating.
Ps. My screenshots can be useful for thos who stuck somewhere and want to see what’s next. I’m pretty sure they won’t be over-used.